Pass the hat

An Argentine street juggler and acrobat passes the hat around the

crowd. This is part of a much larger series on street performers and

art on the street. The balloons on the right were plain luck, but I

think the shot would have worked even without them. What do you think?

I don`t think the baloons are mucho of a luck,...

Pity you have to write all this to explain what is on a photograph - a good photo doesn`t need subtitles,...

Okay, so it's not completely self-explanatory; big deal. Maybe it you retitled it "street performer" or something people wouldn't be bothered. Or, like was suggested, include part of the audience to show more of the atmosphere. Is she the only one, or is she part of a group? And maybe there are some interesting characters in the crowd. I think that since this is of the street genre, you should try including more of the surroundings to give more of the story and not just isolate this one performer. Unless we're shown this photo as part of a series, I think you need to widen the view.

A little more light on the hat might have helped without cropping looser. The balloons are a nice color element but neither add or detract. As one element of a series on this performer it would have been a good photograph as is.

Street type work is terrible to do -so much distraction, backgrounds are always difficult to refine etc.

 

I feel you made some wrong choices here. Either go in real real close or get it as an environmental shot with the appropriate supporting background - this is some where in between so its not going to be very good to look at. The background does not support your main subject at all. I would be in my opinion a distraction.

I left this photo "Uncategorized" because I feel it is more a portrait of the girl, of her smile and good-naturedness than a street photo, but I wanted to know what you people thought. It has been considered either a street photo or a posed shot where I could light an area better. In fact, explaining who she was has been frowned upon. I am really intrigued by this. Can anyone shed more light on the nature of the critiques? Thank you.

She is well lit, but hadn't I read your explanation I would have thought she was a runner coming exhilarated from a race or some other competition, about to wipe her face on the towel she seems to be holding. (I assume the "towel" is actually the hat you mention on the title). This must have been a though scene to meter: she is lit quite well, but the hat is awfully dark and probably showing the folds of its shape would have ended up overexposing her. Do you have any shots that are marginally wider and show more of the hat thing, or maybe other people's attitude towards her?

 

What I think that David and S. Liu mention about the image not being self-explanatory has to do with what happened to me when I saw it: had I not read your explanation, I would have thought that something else entirely was going on. On this issue, the problem is not that there was an explanation, but that the explanation was needed. Then again, if you only wanted to show her portrait and not let people know what was going on, just leave out everything else and let people get from the image what they may.

I'm affraid I don't find it that obvious that its a hat she is holding, there just arn't enough clues in this one photo. The baloons do help to set the context, but i don't think its enough to get the idea accross